PLAID Cymru MP Adam Price last night broke ranks with his party to suggest Wales should not look to Scotland as the model for a future National Assembly.

PLAID Cymru MP Adam Price last night broke ranks with his party to suggest Wales should not look to Scotland as the model for a future National Assembly.

Plaid Cymru wants parity with the Scottish Parliament by 2007, which would see Westminster devolve tax varying and primary law making powers to Cardiff.

But the policy, enshrined in the party's Assembly election manifesto and its submission to the Richard Commission, is all wrong says the Carmarthen East and Dinefwr MP.

Mr Price believes the settlement which created the Northern Ireland Legislative Assembly is the one Wales should aspire to, despite the difficulties which dog the suspended institution.

Mr Price admits the Scottish model has "huge advantages over its weaker Welsh imitation" because of its primary law making powers.

However, he argues the Scottish settlement is tooinflexible and leaves politicians north of the border hamstrung in a way Northern Ireland's politicians will not be after the November 26 election.

He said, "The Scottish model has the benefit of certainty, there is a list of reserved powers, things which remain the exclusive preserve of Westminster and everything else is devolved to Scotland. And therein, curiously, lies the problem.

"Scottish devolution, like our own, is a done deal. A much better deal by all accounts but just as inflexible and as frustrating in its own way as our particular tablet of devolutionary stone."

Mr Price said while the Scottish Executive could vary tax by three pence in the pound in "practical terms" it was not as useful as the power to borrow.

However that power is denied to Scotland even though it will be offered to the proposed regional assemblies for England and the Northern Ireland Assembly.

"This is denied Scotland under the terms of the Scotland Act, hence the frustrations as keenly felt in Edinburgh as in Cardiff with a devolution settlement that hasn't delivered on the hopes that it raised."

The Plaid Cymru MP wants to see any changes to the Government of Wales Act based along the three types of powers given to the Northern Ireland Assembly.

This would see reserved areas, like defence and foreign affairs, retained at Westminster while primary law making powers over issues like health and education would be transferred.

Similar to Northern Ireland, Wales would also have a third "half-way house of reserved matters" which could be transferred with cross-party support and the permission of the Welsh Secretary.

In time, that could include powers over policing, prisons and the criminal justice system which are held at Westminster.

The Richard Commission, due to report early next year, is reviewing what additional powers should be devolved to the Assembly.

It is expected to recommend primary powers over already devolved matters rather than a wholesale transfer of extra responsibilities.